Wednesday, 17 February 2010

PFI - Labour's Legacy

Last week in the Scottish Parliament, Kenny Gibson MSP asked the following Parliamentary Question: To ask the Scottish Government how much it will have to find in total from 2010-11 onwards to fund all existing PFI and PPP contracts.

John Swinney, Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth replied:The total unitary payments for all existing PFI and PPP contracts from 2010-2011 onwards are approximately £27.7 billion. That figure is inclusive of Scottish Government PFI/PPP funding contributions.A table showing the annual costs is here.

John Wilson MSP requested an estimate for each local authority in 2010-2011 and 2011-12. This table was supplied by John Swinney.

It is noticeable from the table that Glasgow City and South Lanarkshire are the two highest debtors for 2011-12 with 48.2 and 32.5 respectively. Four-fifths of the £27.7 billion debt is attributable to two labour-controlled councils.

I have criticised the government's Scottish Future's Trust in the past but it must be better value than PFI which is set to absorb billions for at least a generation.

What a legacy labour have left Scotland's youth - £27 billion of debt. An optimist hope that, with the tories (should they be elected) in Westminster and the SNP in Holyrood, the situation can be rectified is here, however I doubt if much can be done due to the contract restrictions.

Debt is what Labour governments are all about! Every party who takes over from them are forced into making the tough choices that Labour's economic and social mismanagement generates.

I shall, as a Tory, soon be a supporter of a Party that may be in government- and forced to clean up Labour's debt mountain. Thus I do feel not a little simpathy for the SNP administration, none of that £27 is down to them...but they shall now suffer the political tides that go with making the tougher choices to salvage the economy.

I feel for the SNP, they should make abundently clear that this is Labour's mess, these cuts that are coming are LABOUR'S cuts.

On the contrary Rosa, its all intermeshed and mangled together like re-formed meat.

It would take a global sea change and blue sky thinking to get the attitudes of people and governments to balance the cost of what they're getting to the value of its real worth.

But some things are worth remembering - all contracts are open to re-negotiation - no lawyer yet has drawn up a completely watertight contract - and changes in situations, such as these caused by the financial meltdown can be an opening to renegotiation.

There is an element of Emperor's New Clothes about the SFT and Wee Eck's revelation that it will be the answer to all our ails.

It's pretty obvious that as we hurtle headlong deeper into this recession, the cheap money markets of yesterday no longer exist, it was a good idea pre-election, grow a pair and tell the people we can't do it any longer thanks to Labour's mismanagement of the economy. Instead, as somebody above suggests start getting government lawyers to find ways to ease some of the utterly insane profits to PFI companies that Labour signed up to.